2010 Trip planners, unite!!!

[tarak]

I sent my info to a TA that came highly recommended, so she's going to make our reservations for Dec. 2010 as soon as the AAA rates come out. I have 17+ months to plan. But I'm as excited as if it were this year. Not sure if that's good or bad.

 

[cinderella1975]

Hi All, I live in Australia and we have just begun planning our 1st ever overseas vacation to Walt Disney World. I have stumbled accross this website and I am so pleased that I did! lol. I have been on the WDW website about 50 times already and have bought the Frommers Unnofficial Guide to WDW for some help and guidance. I think I am going to need it! I am 34 and married with a 7yr old son and 5 yr old daughter. Does anyone have any advice for me on where to stay? We really want to stay at a WDW hotel as we will not have a car, I am too scared to hire one because the thought of driving on the 'other side of the road' is quite a frightening concept for me. Any tips or advice would be great! Have fun planning your vacations guys. We are so excited and can't wait for our 'holiday of a lifetime' (so far). PS: Did I mention my children have never even been on an airplane before? ... oh no, am I crazy taking hubby and two children half way around the world???

 

[disneyfantotheend]

Not crazy at all, you and they will have a great time. The travel for us is always the most stressful, because my family, minus me is afraid to fly. Thank goodness we only have a 2-3 hour flight.

What type of resort do you want to stay at? They all have great features in my opinion. I have stayed from value to deluxe and I loved every one we stayed at. So fogure which is most in your budget and go from there. Have fun planning!

 

[nemofans]

Hi All, I live in Australia and we have just begun planning our 1st ever overseas vacation to Walt Disney World. I have stumbled accross this website and I am so pleased that I did! lol. I have been on the WDW website about 50 times already and have bought the Frommers Unnofficial Guide to WDW for some help and guidance. I think I am going to need it! I am 34 and married with a 7yr old son and 5 yr old daughter. Does anyone have any advice for me on where to stay? We really want to stay at a WDW hotel as we will not have a car, I am too scared to hire one because the thought of driving on the 'other side of the road' is quite a frightening concept for me. Any tips or advice would be great! Have fun planning your vacations guys. We are so excited and can't wait for our 'holiday of a lifetime' (so far). PS: Did I mention my children have never even been on an airplane before? ... oh no, am I crazy taking hubby and two children half way around the world???

You need to decide betw value, mod, or deluxe levels first. Then look at the themes in that level that your family would enjoy.

 

[cinderella1975]

Hi again, thanks for your comments I am currently undecided between the CBR and The Boardwalk. Maybe we could do 4 nights at one + 4 nights at the other just for a little variety. I am thinking 8 nights would be a nice length of stay. We are not sure if we want to do a water park, but definately want to do the 4 main parks, shopping, relaxing, swimming, etc.

 

[disneyfantotheend]

You can do a split stay. They are a little more of a hassle, because you have to pack everything up half way through your trip, but ours went very smoothly when we did one.

8 days is a good number to go. I would not even attempt Water Parks for your first trip. You don't want to cram too much in. I think having some time to just enjoy your hotel is important too. I am sure no matter what you decide you will have a blast.

 

[cinderella1975]

Thanks . And so the planning continues ....

 

[YesMickey]

Hi All, I live in Australia and we have just begun planning our 1st ever overseas vacation to Walt Disney World. I have stumbled accross this website and I am so pleased that I did! lol. I have been on the WDW website about 50 times already and have bought the Frommers Unnofficial Guide to WDW for some help and guidance. I think I am going to need it! I am 34 and married with a 7yr old son and 5 yr old daughter. Does anyone have any advice for me on where to stay? We really want to stay at a WDW hotel as we will not have a car, I am too scared to hire one because the thought of driving on the 'other side of the road' is quite a frightening concept for me. Any tips or advice would be great! Have fun planning your vacations guys. We are so excited and can't wait for our 'holiday of a lifetime' (so far). PS: Did I mention my children have never even been on an airplane before? ... oh no, am I crazy taking hubby and two children half way around the world???

You may want to think about Port Orleans French Quarter for you moderate resort. It is very small and has the Water Taxi to Downtown Disney which you must visit at least once, and you don't have to wait for a bus. The boardwalk is the one resort my family would like to stay, because it is similar to being a small Downtown Disney in itself and it is easily accessible to EPCOT.

 

[FoundMyPrince]

We booked today!

Tree House Villas May 18 - 26, 2010!

 

[nmoore14]

I am already planning my trip for 2010. I am planning for December 2010. I am a planner when it comes to vacations and I like to save so I have enough money for keepsakes. I can't wait to see my godchildren's faces when I tell them we are going to WDW . It is a surprise for them. My BF is in on the surprise and she can't wait to see their face as well .

 

[Mommytobree]

How far in advance can you book? I want to book June 2010 for CB pirate rooms and it wont let me, keeps changing the date back to 2009.

 

[nemofans]

You can book it now if you call in. You won't be able to online. They will go by 2009 rates til 2010 rates come out in August.

 

[Guzzi]

Hi All, I live in Australia and we have just begun planning our 1st ever overseas vacation to Walt Disney World. I have stumbled accross this website and I am so pleased that I did! lol. I have been on the WDW website about 50 times already and have bought the Frommers Unnofficial Guide to WDW for some help and guidance. I think I am going to need it! I am 34 and married with a 7yr old son and 5 yr old daughter. Does anyone have any advice for me on where to stay? We really want to stay at a WDW hotel as we will not have a car, I am too scared to hire one because the thought of driving on the 'other side of the road' is quite a frightening concept for me. Any tips or advice would be great! Have fun planning your vacations guys. We are so excited and can't wait for our 'holiday of a lifetime' (so far). PS: Did I mention my children have never even been on an airplane before? ... oh no, am I crazy taking hubby and two children half way around the world???

with 8 days you will have plenty of time to cover all the parks and I think even add a water park if you want, they are a fun change of pace, at least typhoon lagoon is, we havent hit blizzard beach yet

We have stayed at moderate resorts, Carribean Beach and Coronado Springs on our past trips and loved both resorts. check out the disney web site and I would check at www.allears.net , that web site is a handy place to compare the different resorts, with maps, room layouts, square footage, menus at the restrants, etc, very helpful info.

I been reading the boards for a couple of years and I would say that the majority of folks have loved the resorts they stayed at regardless of the level of the resort, value moderate or deluxe.

Based upon my families experience, we spend the majority of our time at the parks, with occassional afternoon breaks at the hotel pool, the resort becomes for us a place to sleep, catch a quick breakfast and maybe an afternoon snack, swim, snooze and we found that we were very happy with the moderate level resorts.

Good luck and have fun planning the trip, thats extends the vaction fun for months prior to your trip

 

[Guzzi]

by the way, if you are going to hit a water park, try this, instead of hitting the wp first thing in the morning, (which we did 2x, typical crowds for disney, long lines, but fun!), we went to Typhoon lagoon at about 3:00pm, which according to various guide books is when folks start to leave to get ready for dinner and evening fun.

We did notice that we were walking against the tide as we entered the park, found a nice place to sit at the wave pool, just got our feet wet and a thunderstorm blew in we sought shelter as WDW emptied the pools and waited out the weather, about 45 minutes.

In that 45 minutes the majority of the folks at the park left. We had the place (along with a couple of hundred folks) to ourselves. I got tired walking up the stairs of Crush n Gusher (tube ride) with my kids, there was NO LINE there or at any of the attractions. My son and I snorkled with the fish, cool experience, cold water, with no line, etc.... It was a great way to do the park.

 

[cinderella1975]

Hi again ... WOW I am in awe of how friendly and helpful you all are. It is so nice to be able to receive your advice and trust me I am listening to every word you have said. It is so much fun planning this vacation!! Have a great day all (ps: my 5yr old daughter is choosing the icons in my post today)

 

[cinderella1975]

Is is better to book online at the WDW website or by phone? We will be booking a package with park tickets and accommodation.

 

[cinderella1975]

FoundMyPrince, so exciting that you have booked already. Let the countdown begin!

 

[CoachBagFanatic]

Is is better to book online at the WDW website or by phone? We will be booking a package with park tickets and accommodation.

Wow, you all must be excited about your first trip to WDW. Planning is so much fun isn't it. I as well as all the other planners know how excited you are about your trip. I have our June 2010 trip already planned but I just have to wait to book it now. This trip is an 8th grade graduation gift for our DS13 and his BF13 who will both be 14 next year when we go.

I always book on line and then if I have any requests which are always very minimal, I call and have them added to my reservarion. Being you are not in the states, it might be easier for you to book on line with the time difference. Not sure if there is a different number for you to call but I am sure someone here on the DIS will be able to answer that question.

The DIS community has loads of information and they are so very helpful. If you know which resort you are staying at, look for the thread for your particular resort and you can ask questions over there as well. Happy Planning.

 

[disneysmiles]

May 23 2010- ? 5-10 days. Not sure how long we will stay.

I grew up going to Disney and my DH has never been! This is my first Disney vacation planned as a grownup. I'm graduating from Dental School the 21st of May and he said we could go there to celebrate! I will def be all smiles then.

We will also have our 3rd anniversay on the 26th when we are there! Yay! Tentatively we'd like to stay at the animal kingdom lodge or the new Bay Lake Tower.

A couple questions to throw out:

Does anyone have a any cute Disney anniversary T-shirt ideas out there?

Also it seems like if you book in advance and then discounts come out it can be applied to your original price. Do you recommend booking before or after the discounts come out?

What is the best thread/email newsletter/website to follow to keep on top of discounts?

What a great place for good info!

 

[CoachBagFanatic]

May 23 2010- ? 5-10 days. Not sure how long we will stay.

I grew up going to Disney and my DH has never been! This is my first Disney vacation planned as a grownup. I'm graduating from Dental School the 21st of May and he said we could go there to celebrate! I will def be all smiles then.

We will also have our 3rd anniversay on the 26th when we are there! Yay! Tentatively we'd like to stay at the animal kingdom lodge or the new Bay Lake Tower.

A couple questions to throw out:

Does anyone have a any cute Disney anniversary T-shirt ideas out there?

Also it seems like if you book in advance and then discounts come out it can be applied to your original price. Do you recommend booking before or after the discounts come out?

What is the best thread/email newsletter/website to follow to keep on top of discounts?

What a great place for good info!

Congratulations on graduating Dental School as well as your third anniversary.

First I would look at which park you are going to be visiting the most and then you can make a decision as to which resort you would like to stay at. AKL although a very beautiful resort is not too close to much except Animal Kingdom. You would have to take the buses to the other parks. Also remember that buses do not run resort to resort. Just resort to parks and down town disney and visa versa.

BLT is within walking distance to Magic Kingdom and you can take the monorail to TTC (ticket and transportation center) and then transfer to the Epcot monorail.

There's a Codes and Rates thread here on the DIS that you can take a look at. I am not sure about the codes as I have never used one. I just recently started getting them and unfortunately, they are for times that we can't go to WDW due to our DS13 being in school.

http://allears.net/index.html is a great web site for information as well. They have all the information that you would need and then some.

Sorry, don't have any ideas for the T-shirts. We just celebrated our 22nd this past may so we are past the T-shirt stage.

Happy Planning.